Dear Friends,
I would like to highlight my communication with icici bank regarding mobile banking service experience. This is a good example how bank penalises poor customers for their mistakes and stands clean chit for their errors and run away from the realities. You can judge yourself the true picture.
On 02062004, I wrote to icici bank as below:
Mr Manager
As per SMS recd by me today on 02062004 at 5:09 pm, chq No 256954 for INR 3691 issued from my bank account has been dishonoured by you.
FYI, I had created sufficient balance in my account today. To enable you to clear my cheque, I deposited CASH of INR 4000 today at 11 am in the morning at the Ch. Chowk branch of ICICI Bank. But, I am surprised why it got bounced?
Please see and reply asap.
Thank you
on June 03, bank replied as below:
Dear Mr Verma,
We understand your concern
Your cheque is recd at early hours in the morning which is either sent for clearance or returned.
The chq number 256954 was presented for payment when the balance in your Account was insufficient.
Thus the cheque was returned with the reason ’’ Insufficient Funds ’’ on 2 June.
Regards
Account Manager
ICICI Bank
on 04062004, I replied to bank’s email as per mail below:
Mr Account Manager,
I am not satisfied with your reply because of the reasons mentioned below:
I am also a subscriber of your Mobile Banking service for which you charge @ Re. 1 per SMS. You have bounced my cheque before 11 AM in the morning on 02062004 and closed the chapter, but, are giving me the information of bouncing thru your SMS at 5:09 PM i.e. after six hours. Then, what is the use of subscribing for the Mobile Banking when I am receiving the information so late. At the time of subscribing for the mobile service, I was informed by your call centre person that in case any cheque comes to my account and going to be dishonoured for insufficient funds, you would send me a SMS immediately so that I could arrange for the funds and take actions to clear the cheque.
After depositing the cash of Rs. 4000 at 11 AM on 02062004, I checked my account balance after one hour at 12’on clock on your website icicibank.com thru online infinity internet service provided by you to me. At that time, my account was showing total available balance as Rs. 455.17, which was clearly giving the indicator that cheque of Rs. 3691 was taken into consideration by you and was not dishonoured. Then, what happened at your level and what is the system is a mistry and not known to me. But, this shows that your infinity internet service is also not reliable completely.
Being a paid subscriber of your mobile banking service, I am supposed to receive SMS for every debit/ credit entry above Rs. 1, 000 made by you in my account or information of any dishonoured cheque. But, many times, you forget to send the SMSs and thus denying me the info at the right time and thus, forcing me to make extra efforts to know the status of bank entries in my account. See a live example i.e. even after two days, I have not got the SMS for crediting Rs. 4000/- cash at 11 AM on 2 June and also for crediting a chq of Rs. 19, 000 on 2 June itself. These type of SMS omissions also happened in past too.
I have also made the complaints on your call centres for these omissions, but, no feedback is received by me neither any improvement is seen in your service. For not providing the service for which I am entitled to and is paying for, you are responsible for gross negligence. For this, I am entitled to get the compensation from you for the time and cost incurred my me in making extra efforts to know the details of my bank entries and also for mental agony and trouble faced by me for not informing me about the debit/ credit entires and also for not informing me in time about the bounced cheque, which is a very very sensitive issue from the point of view of the credibility of a customer in the eyes of the person to whom the cheque was issued. On the contrary, you now debited Rs. 200 in my account towards charges for bounced cheque, which is totally unjustifiable and a one-sided action. You simply cannot penalise your customer being no default on his part and stands clean chit in case of your apparent defaults.
In view of the above, I cannot accept your justification for bouncing of my cheque and levying charges in my account for the same. Please sort out the issues and let me know.
Thank you
Regards
on 05062004, bank replied my mail as below:
Dear Mr Verma
We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.
Please note that the cheque return charges are applicable as no funds were available when the cheque was presented for payment.
No prior intimation is given to the account holder, if the cheque is presented and no funds are available in the account. To avoid cheque return, sufficient balance needs to be maintained.
Further at times the alerts are delayed due to technical constraints, thus the same is received at the end of the day.
Regards,
Account Manager
ICICI Bank
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For further communications, please refer icici Mobile Banking- Part 2 under ’choosing and using internet banks under Members’ advice/ tips reviews under Banks topic.